NASA finds rippling waves on Titan’s hydrocarbon sea

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The farther out in space we explore, the more we discover that the most interesting features in our Solar System are often found on moons instead of planets. Jupiter’s Europa has long been thought to potentially harbor aquatic life, as it most likely contains large oceans underneath its icy surface, and the tireless Cassini spacecraft has also detected the possibility of a subsurface ocean on Saturn’s Enceladus.

Whereas astronomers assume there are oceans on both moons, they know there are seas on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, even though those seas are composed of liquid hydrocarbon. As is Cassini’s modus operandi, it spied something neat on its quest to watch over Saturn and its moons: waves rippling through Titan’s seas.

What makes Titan interesting is its combination of dense atmosphere and being the only other celestial object other than Earth that is confirmed to have stable bodies of liquid on its surface. The conditions on Titan are theorized to be like the conditions on primordial Earth, but without the existence of water vapor. Alien life could exist in Titan’s oceans — inhaling hydrogen instead of oxygen — but no evidence of that yet exists.

Back in 2009, the northern part of Titan began tilting toward the Sun, which was theorized to generate stronger winds when the moon begins its summer in 2017. Based on radar reflections that can detect the stability of bodies of water, Cassini saw evidence of waves rippling over Titan’s methane seas. Over the past couple of years, Cassini has also seen an island, dubbed Magic Island, disappear and reappear — likely the result of waves washing over its surface. The spacecraft also detected what appeared to be a wave using its mapping spectrometer and radar.

For now, the waves are tiny and slow — standing only 1.5 centimeters tall and moving only 0.7 meters per second — and only detected where wind is concentrated. While it’s not entirely unexpected that waves would appear on a body of liquid when wind is present, what the potential waves would prove is that Titan has changed seasons, and its shorelines and other landscape features could’ve been created by waves.

Cassini will pass by Titan again in January of next year, so this might all be confirmed in a few weeks. Who knows what else the spacecraft will detect?